HEATHER BEDS. 



plants, spent several months collecting these among 

 the gloomy solitudes of the Grampians, his only food 

 a little meal, or a bit of crust moistened in the moun- 

 tain burn, and his only couch a bed of Heather or moss 

 in the shelter of a rock. 



Burt tells us that when a young couple were mar- 

 ried, for the first night the company kept possession 

 of the dwelling house or hut, and sent the bridegroom 

 and bride to a barn or outhouse, giving them straw, 

 heath, or fern for a bed, and blankets for their cover- 

 ing, and then they made merry and danced to the 

 piper all the night long. 



In describing how a party of poachers sleep out 

 on the hillside, St. John, in his "Wild Sports and 

 Natural History of the Highlands," thus remarks : 

 "If snow is on the ground they just scrape off a small 

 space; they then collect a quantity of the driest 

 Heather they can find. The next step is for all the 

 party except one to lie down close to each other, with 

 room between one couple for the remaining man to 

 get into the rank when his duty is done, which is to 

 lay all the plaids on the top of his companions, and on 

 the plaids a quantity of long Heather : when he has 

 sufficiently thatched them in, he creeps into the vacant 

 place, and they are made up for the night. The 

 coldest frost has no effect on them when bivouacking 

 in this manner. Their guns are laid dry between 

 them, and their dogs share their masters' couch." 



The Heather was the couch upon which reposed 

 Scotia's ancient bards. Thus pleads Ossian : "Sit 

 thou on the heath, O Bard, and let us hear thy voice; 

 it is pleasant as the gale of the Spring that sighs on 



73 



